Higher frequencies are increasingly being used in communications technology. For example, frequencies in the range of 450 MHz to 3 GHz are used in cellular communications and frequencies in the range of 10 GHz to 18 GHz are used in satellite video and data transmission.
These applications require small, precise capacitors. Multi-layer ceramic capacitors have been employed for this purpose, but they tend to be lacking in precision and performance. Thin film capacitors have improved precision and performance but they are expensive.
Accordingly, there is a need for a precision high-frequency capacitor that can be manufactured at a reasonable cost.